NEW YORK (Reuters) - American astronaut Alan Bean, the fourth person to walk on the moon in 1969 during the Apollo 12 mission and commanded a crew on the Skylab space station in 1973, died in Houston on Saturday, federal officials said.

He was 86 years old.

"Alan Bean once said 'I have the nicest life in the world,'" National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement. "It's a comforting sentiment to recall as we mourn his passing."